Valerie Forstman: Zen’s Subverting Impulse: Overturning the One
Valerie’s Messages
Valerie begins this Halloween night teisho referencing Colleen’s Wednesday Wisdom talk based in part on Kamilah Majied’s book “Joyfully Just.” Colleen invited us to weave wonder, joy, and resilient compassion
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Valerie Forstman: A Preaching in Accordance
Valerie begins this teisho noticing the full moon, The Hunter’s Moon, rising in the night sky. Dogen’s writings include several aspects of the moon as realization, one drop of water
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Valerie Forstman: Complete Exposure of the Golden Wind
Valerie begins this teisho with the reminder that we are here, right where we are, as is everything else, nothing excluded. She recounts driving to Telluride last week and seeing
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Valerie Forstman: What is love? (Denkoroku Case #41)
Valerie begins her teisho with impressions from the teacher training in Germany – the consistent theme of life as a dream, already gone, and yet…shared sitting, shared practice, shared koan
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Valerie Forstman: The Skin, Flesh, Bones, and Marrow of Bodhidharma
Valerie starts by sharing a quote by Kieran Meade-Ward from the last day of the 30 Days of Dogen course. “And isn’t it interesting that such relaxed clarity doesn’t obscure
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Valerie Forstman: Dew Drops Shaken from a Crane’s Bill
We enter just now into the vast, limitless oneness of the practice of Zen. Flowing but at the same time perfectly still. Valerie picks up a thread from another of
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Valerie Forstman: Case 81 of the Book of Equanimity
Valerie Roshi began by recalling the NASZ sesshin of the previous week, led by Yamada Ryo’un Roshi, abbot of Sanbo Zen International, and his impact on several students. The Roshi’s
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Valerie Forstman: Case 37 of Hekiganroku (Blue Cliff Record)
In this talk, Valerie weaves through our Zen inheritance from Shakymuni Buddha, to Prajnatara to her disciple Bodidharma, to Bodidharma’s disciple, to Baso and his student, Banzan, and here to
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Valerie Forstman: What Are You Dreaming?
In this teisho, Valerie takes up the subject of aging and illness using case #94 from The Book of Equanimity. In this case, titled Tozan’s Illness, we hear Master Tozan
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Valerie Forstman: Shoji
Shoji is the Japanese word for “life and death.” Where will we go when we die? In this teisho, Valerie takes up the matter of life and death and its
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Valerie Forstman: Celebration of Sister Elaine MacIness
This teisho is given on the 100th birthday of Sister Elaine MacIness. Valerie shares a sketch of the remarkable life and work of Sister Elaine who was a Roman Catholic
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Valerie Forstman: Leaping into Here and Now
In this teisho, Valerie takes up the important koan, “Three pounds of flax.” This is case 12 in the Hekiganroku or Blue Cliff Record and also appears as case 18
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Valerie Forstman: Where Does the Moon Dwell?
In this Zazenkai talk, Valerie shares the moon’s reflection through Dogen’s teaching and the awakening verses of Chiyono (Mugai Nyodai) and Nyozen of Tokeiji. Chiyono, the first woman in Japan
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Valerie Forstman: Layman Pang’s Snowflakes
Valerie begins by reminding us of the wide reach of our practice. While there are innumerable expressions, there is but one fact. According to Dogen, we may have only an
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